Mobile data offloading is the use of complementary network technologies for delivering data originally targeted for cellular networks. Rules triggering the mobile offloading action can be set by either an end-user (mobile subscriber) or an operator. The code operating on the rules can reside in an end-user device, in a server, or can be divided between the two. End users can do data offloading for data service cost control and the availability of higher bandwidth. Operators can do it to ease congestion of cellular networks. Example complementary network technologies used for mobile data offloading are wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi), femtocell and integrated mobile broadcast.
The increasing need for offloading solutions is caused by the explosion of Internet data traffic, especially the growing portion of traffic going through mobile networks. This has been enabled by smartphone devices possessing Wi-Fi capabilities together with large screens and different Internet applications, from browsers to video and audio streaming applications. In addition to smart phones, laptops with 3G access capabilities are also seen as a major source of mobile data traffic. Additionally, Wi-Fi is typically much less costly to build than cellular networks.
The above-described background relating to a network traffic offloading is merely intended to provide a contextual overview of some current issues, and is not intended to be exhaustive. Other contextual information may become further apparent upon review of the following detailed description.